Gold hits 6-year high on heightened Middle East tensions

 

Safe havens and a weaker dollar

Gold extended its recent rally to a third day in Asia, advancing to the highest since May 2013 in early trading. An escalation in tensions in the Middle East yesterday fuelled gold’s breakout from a triangle pattern that had been forming since June 25.

In addition, the uber-dovish comments from Fed’s Williams yesterday increased speculation of a deeper 50bps rate cut at this month’s meeting, which put pressure on the US dollar to the benefit of the precious metal.

 

Gold Daily Chart

Source: OANDA fxTrade

 

Williams clarifies comments

Yesterday’s comments, which raised the probability of a 50 bps rate cut to 40% from 35% the previous day, were clarified by a spokesperson earlier this morning, who said that the comments were not about potential policy action, but more an academic speech on 20 years of research.

As a result, gold reversed its early advance to trade in the red as the dollar regained some ground.

 

Equities continue higher

Equity indices all traded higher this morning, seemingly immune to the escalation in tensions in the Gulf and the clarification of Williams’s comments. US indices rose between 0.11% and 0.23% while China shares climbed 0.95%. Hong Kong shares out-performed with gains of 1.26%.

Currencies traded a bit more conservatively, with AUD/USD falling a modest 0.12% to 0.7066, USD/JPY rising 0.21% to 107.53 while EUR/USD slid 0.13% to 1.1262. GBP/USD consolidated yesterday’s big gains, the most since May 3, but still faces losses on the week.

 

GBP/USD Daily Chart  

Source: OANDA fxTrade

 

Short-Term Outlook: All about Earnings, Trade, and Easing

 

A quiet end to the week

The data calendar winds down quite rapidly into the weekend, with June German producer prices and the Euro-zone current account balance for May the main events on the European slate. Producer prices are expected to fall 0.2% m/m and gain 1.4% y/y, both of which are lower than the previous month.

The North American session features Canada’s retail sales data for May, with a mild increase from +0.1% m/m to +0.3% m/m seen. July’s US Michigan consumer sentiment index for July probably improved to 98.5 from 98.2, the latest survey shows, but yesterday’s massive beat by the Philadelphia Fed index could imply an even better number. A speech from Fed’s Bullard rounds off the week.

 

The full MarketPulse data calendar can be viewed at https://www.marketpulse.com/economic-events/

 

Have a great weekend.

 

 

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson

Senior Market Analyst at MarketPulse
A seasoned professional with more than 30 years’ experience in foreign exchange, interest rates and commodities, Andrew Robinson is a senior market analyst with OANDA, responsible for providing timely and relevant market commentary and live market analysis throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Having previously worked in Europe, since moving to Singapore he worked with several leading institutions including Bloomberg, Saxo Capital Markets and Informa Global Markets, proving FX strategies based on a combination of technical and fundamental analysis as well as market flow information. Andrew began his career as an FX dealer with NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK.
Andrew Robinson

Latest posts by Andrew Robinson (see all)